The present disclosure relates generally a technique for supporting creation of a manual of a program product, and more specifically, to a technique for creating a manual by maintaining terminology consistency between a program product and a manual associated with the program product.
A manual of a program product fulfills an important role when a user uses the program product. However, terminology displayed on a display device of a computer that is actually operating the program product (hereinafter referred to as “terminology of a program product on the screen”) (for example, menu bar terminology) and terminology in the manual (hereinafter referred to as “manual terminology”) are often different. In this case, even if the user reads the manual, a situation where an operation method for the program product is difficult to understand or is beyond his/her understanding, or the program product is difficult to use could happen. Furthermore, even if the user reads the manual, a situation where the terminology of the program product on the screen cannot be verified could happen.
An author of a manual creates the manual while confirming the terminology of the program product on the screen during actual operation, or based on specifications thereof. Furthermore, in order to confirm the terminology of the program product on the screen during actual operation, the author of the manual creates the manual while switching between an application for creating the manual (hereinafter referred to as “editor”), and the program product during actual operation on the same computer (for example, by switching windows), or by operating the editor and the program product during actual operation on different computers and simultaneously operating both computers for example.
Furthermore, when creating a manual using a screen character string, specifically using a UI (user interface) character string, the author of the manual manually enters the screen character string, or creates a glossary for the program product and then uses the glossary. However, when the author of the manual manually creates the manual, a situation where the terminology of the manual is not accurately described, for example, because of typographical errors or misunderstandings during the entry could occur. Furthermore, maintaining manual terminology consistency while the author of the manual views the terminology of the program product on the screen is a very time-consuming work. Furthermore, there may be cases where terminology about a leading edge program product or terminology of its own company's or other company's unique terminology, which is not an industry wide standard, may not be sufficiently compiled in the glossary of the program product. Furthermore, the program product is improved just before its release, and the terminology on the screen of the program product often changes. In this case, a situation where changes in the terminology are not reflected in the manual could happen.
Furthermore, if the program product is in an English version, a situation where a different translation is used for the same word between in a Japanese version of the program product and a Japanese version of the manual, because a developer translating the program product into Japanese and the author of the Japanese version of the manual of the program product are different could happen. Furthermore, if the program product is in an English version, when an author of the Japanese version of the manual creates a Japanese version of the manual by translating the English version or creates a new Japanese version of the manual independent from the English version of the manual, a situation where a different translation is used for the same word between the Japanese version of the program product and the Japanese version of the manual could happen.